US military says 2 American soldiers killed in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – Two U.S. troops were killed Friday during combat in Afghanistan, the NATO command in Kabul announced.

Their deaths bring to four the number of American service members killed in the longest conflict in U.S. history. There are about 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the force split between troops advising local forces in their fight against Taliban militants and counterterrorism forces fighting elements of al Qaeda and ISIS.

The men were identified Saturday as Spc. Joseph P. Collette, 29, of Lancaster, Ohio, and Sgt. 1st Class Will D. Lindsay, 33, of Cortez, Colorado.

In December, President Donald Trump had considered cutting in half the U.S. troop presence there. That, along with his announcement in the reduction of forces fighting ISIS militants in Syria and his dismissive attitude toward U.S. alliances, were among the reasons that then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned abruptly from his post.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has also been encouraging peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban forces to end the conflict that began in 2001. At that time, U.S.-backed forces helped topple the Taliban government that had sheltered al Qaeda militants responsible for Sept. 11 terror attacks.

U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad ended talks earlier this month with leaders of the insurgency without resolution. Draft agreements, according to Khalilzad, would see U.S. troops withdraw from the country and guarantees that Afghanistan would not harbor terrorist groups.

More than 2,400 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. Thirteen troops died there in 2018.

Earlier in his administration, Trump had been persuaded to boost the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by 4,000.

"My original instinct was to pull out and, historically, I like following my instincts," Trump said. "But all my life I’ve heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office."

That decision represented a break from the rhetoric Trump embraced during his 2016 campaign. Trump, at the time, frequently questioned the nation's involvement in Afghanistan, at one point describing it as "a complete waste."